Cambridge University medical student jailed for string of child sex offences

A former Cambridge University student who was in his final year studying medicine held his head in his hands as he was jailed for four years and eight months for a series of child sex offences.

Samantha Marsh, prosecuting at Cambridge Crown Court, said 25-year-old Lorcan Elliott used a website to “find and identify young male children”.

“The general [approach] was to state he was a sugar daddy and offering payment between £200 and £800 based on their sexual limits,” she said.

“There are chats where the defendant offered money and on one occasion posted a bank statement showing he has money.”

She said there was “no evidence money actually changed hands”.

Ms Marsh said that Elliott would ask the boys, aged between 13 and 15, to send him indecent photos of themselves.

The prosecutor said it was reported to police that a user of a Dropbox account had uploaded indecent images in January 2022, and the IP address used to register the account was linked to the address of Elliott’s student accommodation in Cambridge.

She said it was further reported that a user of a Snapchat account had uploaded indecent images in September 2022, and the IP address was linked to the defendant’s home address.

“Police linked the two pieces of information and the common denominator was the defendant,” Ms Marsh said.

Police searched Elliott’s student accommodation and seized two phones, and also seized a laptop from his home address in Orton Southgate near Peterborough.

The devices were analysed and further images were found.

Judge Philip Grey said the defendant’s “immediate reaction” when he was arrested by police “was to panic and say ‘I’m going to prison’”.

Elliott pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 22 child sexual offences, which the judge said spanned a period of 16 months.

They included three counts of making indecent images encompassing 142 category A images – the most serious level – with 118 at category B and 354 at category C.

He also admitted to two counts of the distribution of indecent images, nine of engaging in sexual communication with a child and eight of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Sentencing him on Wednesday to four years and eight months in prison, Judge Grey told Elliott: “What you did is the sort of foul online behaviour that causes parents the world over to fear what their children are being exposed to online.

He added: “No parent really knows what their child is doing online. You, and other sexual predators like you, know that and take advantage of it.”

Henry Oghoetuoma, mitigating, said Elliott was “sincerely sorry” and was of previous good character.

He said Elliott admitted his career in medicine was over, and that a professor had described him as a “hard-working student” who was “committed to his studies”.

The lawyer said the defendant had, through his actions, thrown “many years of study down the drain”.

Elliott, who appeared tearful throughout the hearing, used a hearing loop to listen to proceedings as he sat in the secure dock of the court.

He held his head in his hands as his sentence was read out, before he was led to the cells by the dock officer.

Elliott was ordered to sign the sex offenders register, was made the subject of an indefinite sexual offence prevention order and barred from working with children and other vulnerable groups.

The judge ordered his two phones be confiscated and destroyed.

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